STANDARDIZATION 141 stone cottage—that rare phenomenon in rural America—standing just where it should. We descended into the valley and ascended the hill on the other side. Arrived at this new eminence, there, in front of us, were the Cotswolds again, with the stone cottage almost in the same position. A third hilltop repeated the vision, and so on for I know not how many miles. At last a weariness came over me and I began to wonder whether nature or the demiurge, or whoever was respon- sible for creating the American landscape, had foreseen the age of Mr, Ford, when America would lead the world in mass production, and prepared a background of scenery to correspond, A similar correspondence of setting to subject may be observed in certain political principles much honoured by the Americans. " We hold these truths to be self-evident," says the Declaration of Independence, " that all men are created equal, etc." Prophetic words! May we not discern in them the foreshadowing of a coming time when the principle here assigned to the creation of men would be transferred to the creation of things ? Do not the words attribute to the Creator, in the creation of men, precisely that method of standardized mass production which at a later age was to become dominant in American industry ? All men are created equ&L So are Mr. Ford's cars, Mr* Statler's hotels and Mr, Wrigley's packets of chewing-gum. So are the portraits of George Washington on the two-